Another major work undertaken during the year was the lowering of the coupler heights of all British Section locomotives, carriages and wagons from 43" to 35". This change was necessary in order to facilitate the interchange of rolling stock with that of the Chinese Administration. The Chinese Government Railways decided to standardize the coupler heights of all their rolling stocks at 35" since the Japanese had converted so large a proportion of the available stock in China to this height during the war. The British Section perforce had to follow suit.
The total revenue for the period January-December 1948 amounted to approximately $6,953,596,67 while expenditure was approximately $3,658,651.35. The main source of income was from passenger traffic which was the heaviest in the history of the Line, the total numbers carried and revenue earned over the British Section being 3,683,621 and $5,966,796.40 respectively. This was an increase of 33.58 per cent over the numbers conveyed in 1947 and 30.66 per cent above the previous highest of 2,826,867 in 1936. These figures however do not represent the results of any one financial year as the Railway financial year dates from 1st April to 31st March.
Through passengers carried were 2,446,895, revenue earned being $4,894,090.10. This was an increase of 546,255 passengers and $952,582.28 in revenue compared with the previous year and is attributed to the growth in population of the Colony and Canton coupled with the improvements achieved in the economic position of the Colony. Traffic was particularly heavy over the Easter Holidays and the Ching Ming or Chinese Spring Festival, 95 special trains being run between March 26th and April 21st necessitating special police arrangements at Kowloon Station to control the crowds. The number of local passengers rose from 857,036 to 1,236,726, revenue earned being $1,072,706.30 an increase of $280,914.85 due to improvements in the local train service and the rise in population of the New Territories in the neighbourhood of the Railway.
There was a decrease in through goods traffic by comparison with 1947, as the following figures illustrate:
Up Down
Total
1948.
1947.
123,548 tons
55,784 tons.
31,100 tons.
86,884 tons.
4,212 tons 127,760 tons
The decrease is explained by the gradual cessation of UNRRA supplies and the reduction in imports and exports passing to and from the interior via Hong Kong owing to the very stringent re- strictions imposed by the Chinese Government.
At the close of the year the train services amounted to four
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